Re: Editorial series on heroin.

The National Alliance of Methadone Advocates would like to commend you
for publishing a timely and important editorial on the new potent
heroin. However, your July 7 editorial incorrectly infers that methadone
is a substitute for heroin. It is not. Addicts do not get euphoric or
sedative effects from methadone. To the contrary, it normalizes a
dysfunctional physiology that has been damaged by the use of heroin and
short-acting opiates. For the majority of addicts it appears that this
damage is irreversible. Therefore, methadone maintenance chemotherapy
gives them the opportunity to have a normal life.

More important, methadone maintenance treatment reduces crime and public
health problems (i.e., HIV infection and overdose). Communities need to
understand that the average methadone patient is a hard-working
individual who supports their family and pays taxes just like everyone
else. Therefore, the fear that a methadone clinic located in a community
will increase crime is totally unfounded.

Methadone maintenance should be the gold standard by which other drug
treatment modalities are judged, yet despite its success it is
disparaged because the public does not understand opiate addiction. The
new potent heroin is attracting middle-class youth to the addict ranks,
and communities need to understand that a methadone program in their
community will save their lives.
Together, we can make a difference.

JOYCELYN WOODS
Executive vice president
National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
New York, N.Y.